


holiday shopping madness

by duelistkingdom



Series: 12 days of Christmas 2020 [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Holiday Shopping, M/M, non christmas celebrating character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:29:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28134711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duelistkingdom/pseuds/duelistkingdom
Summary: what do you get a guy that says "sorry i gave your grandfather a heart attack"?
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yuugi, Rivalshipping
Series: 12 days of Christmas 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2054562
Kudos: 29





	holiday shopping madness

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to ruby for beta'ing this fic <3

Working with Yugi had been a change that Seto hadn’t seen coming. Sure, for the most part, they presented themselves as rivals on friendly terms to the world but there was definitely something sparking that Seto couldn’t have predicted. Another thing that he couldn’t have predicted was the new and unsteady relationship he’d found himself in with Yugi. Regardless of how strange it felt to be in a relationship, Yugi tended to make it feel a lot easier than it had any right to. In fact, Yugi seemed to make even work less stressful. He wasn’t sure how Yugi did it.

All he knew was that any time Yugi came bounding into his office, Seto instantly felt relaxed. Perhaps it was because Yugi’s projects were all progressing nicely. Surely that was the reason why. Either way, with Christmas fast approaching, Seto was concerned about what he should get his boyfriend. What said “sorry for all the ways I made your teenage life hell, glad you still wanted to date me”? A day planner? Mokuba suggested that Seto get Yugi a nice new tablet and a book on how to deal with his boyfriend’s Catholic guilt. Seto was not amused by either suggestion.

Seto quickly exited out of the website that he was browsing to find a gift for Yugi when Yugi entered his office with a bright grin on his face. “Hey, Kaiba,” Yugi said, not bothering to ask permission as he went to sit on Seto’s desk. No matter how many times Seto told Yugi that was not a chair, Yugi didn’t listen. “You do know most people have taken the rest of the week off for the holidays, right?”

“You didn’t request the week off,” Seto noted, a raised brow at Yugi. “Shouldn’t you be home with your grandfather?”

“Thought you wanted the next goalpost on the project done by the end of January,” Yugi quipped with a teasing grin. “Not gonna happen if I slack off.”

While Seto usually admired Yugi’s work ethic, the holidays certainly were not the time for Yugi to be overexerting himself. In fact, he was worried that Sugoroku might yell at him if his grandson wasn’t around for the holidays. He’d just barely gotten on his good side as it was. “If you need the deadline extended, you can have until the end of February,” Seto said, well aware that extending the deadline out meant pushing back a bunch of other projects. “I’d rather you get your holiday off than overwork yourself.”

“Says the guy who never takes a single day off unless Mokuba or I bully you into it,” Yugi said, leaning forward with a grin on his face. “Are _you_ going to take the holidays off?”

“Of course not,” Seto said with a roll of his eyes. Yugi seemed intent on making sure that he took the holidays off and Seto couldn’t understand why. It was just another day. Not only that… he had enough baggage with Christmas as it was. His relationship with the holidays could be described as ‘strained at best’. That doesn’t mean that he was going to take his issues with the holidays out on his employees. He wasn’t a monster despite what he tried to act like. “I have work to do, Yugi. Deadlines to meet. I can’t just push this on someone else.”

“In that case,” Yugi said as he leapt off the desk a lot more gracefully than he would think Yugi capable, “I’m not taking the holidays off either. However, I am going home for the night. Someone’s gotta hang out with Mokuba, after all. See you tomorrow, Kaiba.”

True to Yugi’s word, he was indeed in the office the next day. In fact, he and Yugi were the _only_ ones in the office today. Even Mokuba decided to ditch work today. He supposed he couldn’t fault Mokuba for thinking playing on the Switch that Yugi had gotten him was more fun than looking over spreadsheets and fiscal records and closing out books for the year. Still, it meant that instead of working in his office, Yugi had elected to work in Seto’s office instead. It made going to try and find a gift for Yugi all the harder when Yugi occasionally got up to give him a kiss. Not that he minded the kisses but…well, it was hard to find a real objection to being kissed by Yugi at this point.

“You’re distracting me,” Seto complained when Yugi got up to give him yet another kiss. “Isn’t the whole point of us working today to get ahead of our deadlines? How are we supposed to do that when you keep trying to make out with me?”

Yugi laughed. “Kaiba, I haven’t even begun to try to make out with you,” he teased, winking at him before moving to sit himself in Seto’s lap. Seto turned bright red and was privately grateful that there was no risk of anyone walking in on this. “See, if I were trying to make out with you, I’d start like this.”

“Yugi,” Seto hissed, “we’re at _work_.”

“And there’s no one here,” Yugi said, his voice dangerously low as he started to nip at Seto’s neck with light laughter. “Don’t tell me that you actually plan on working the whole day.”

“If you aren’t going to work, you’re more than welcome to go home,” Seto managed to get, struggling to sound stern. Unfortunately, Yugi just happened to be very distracting. So did the concern that maybe someone might catch them. The chances were very low but it was still something Seto would like to avoid. “I’m sure you can find something at home to entertain yourself with.”

“But what I want to entertain myself with is here at work.”

Yugi made a very good case and Seto was finding it hard to argue with Yugi. So instead of arguing, he just gave in.

There were now only three days until Christmas and Seto was beginning to panic just a little bit. He still had yet to find a decent gift for Yugi and since it was the weekend, he couldn’t hide in his office scrolling through the internet in hopes of finding the perfect gift. So instead of dealing with trying to hide what he was searching for at home, he dodged out of the house early in the morning to go shopping for a gift. Yugi would understand, Seto hoped. If nothing else, he could claim he’d been at work and not last-minute gift shopping for his boyfriend that he really should have gotten a gift for months ago.

He was certain that in-person shopping was not this bad. Then again, this was the first time he’d done it in several years. The only reason he was doing so now was because Mokuba had insisted that Yugi would like it better if Seto bought the gift himself. Seto wasn’t sure what the difference was between him personally buying the gift and someone else buying the same thing that he’d already picked out, but it seemed important enough that Mokuba would comment on it.

Even worse, now people knew he bought things. And even more awful was that once again, Seto came up empty-handed. So, he returned back home where Yugi was waiting for him. Yugi looked at him curiously, as if he was trying to understand something. “Did you really go in to work again today,” Yugi asked, sounding more exasperated than anything else. “It’s the weekend. I thought we talked about what weekends are for.”

“Last minute project,” Seto said robotically, well aware it was an excuse that Yugi would buy. “Don’t worry. I won’t go out tomorrow.”

Yugi rolled his eyes before taking Seto’s hand. “There’s a fire going,” he said simply, standing up on his tip toes tiptoes to press a light kiss to Seto’s cheek. “You aren’t leaving my side for the rest of the day. And I better not see you leaving tomorrow, either.”

It had taken some work, but Seto finally managed to find the perfect gift for Yugi. He’d learned long ago that Yugi was rather talented at baking and considered it more of a hobby than something he does for work purposes. Ergo, Seto figured that a nice baking set fit all the perimeters of what a good gift for Yugi would be. And so, on Christmas Eve, he shoved the neatly wrapped gift into Yugi’s hands, who responded with a look of surprise. “Here,” Seto said, rather curtly. “I got you a Christmas gift.”

“I, uh, I don’t celebrate Christmas,” Yugi said, rather awkwardly as he looked at the Christmas gift that Seto had shoved in his hands. “I mean, I’ll accept the gift, but...”

This was confusing to Seto, who had never heard of anyone not celebrating Christmas. Did he screw up? Did Yugi also have issues with religion? This was why Seto never bothered giving out gifts, and he was starting to regret doing so now. “What do you mean you don’t celebrate Christmas,” Seto asked bluntly before he could stop himself. “Don’t tell me you also had rough Christmases as a kid too.”

Yugi’s brow furrowed and he slowly shook his head. “Uh, no, actually I’m just Jewish. I celebrate Hannukah. Which… actually ended yesterday,” Yugi said and slowly it dawned on Seto exactly what he’d just revealed to Yugi relatively unprompted. Now everything was awkward for two reasons and Seto suddenly wanted to invent a reason to get out of there but Yugi had grabbed his hand. The look of outright concern on Yugi’s face was dizzying. “Er...you don’t have to share, but... Did those rough Christmases have anything to do with your adoptive father?”

That was the frustrating thing about Yugi Mutou: not only had Yugi known him for a very long time, but he also remembered everything he learned about Seto too. If there was anyone who would understand, it would be Yugi. And yet all his mistakes with Yugi were at the forefront of his mind. Every single reason that Yugi would have to resent him. “It’s none of your business,” Seto said, rather shortly. “I’ll keep that in mind next year. Why didn’t you request time off for Hannukah?”

It was a sudden change of subject but Yugi took it in stride and shrugged. “I’m used to having to work through it,” he said rather simply. “One time in high school, finals actually fell during Hannukah and I had to take a bunch of tests during it. It’s no big deal.”

That didn’t sit right with Seto. “From now on, you’re taking it off,” he said, well aware that it was a lot bossier than he intended it to be. “I don’t want to see you working through the holidays again.”

Yugi’s eyes widened. “Kaiba, it’s fine, really.”

“No, it’s not,” Seto said. “You’re taking your holidays off and that’s final.”

Yugi just smiled, as if he knew something Seto didn’t. “So you think that people should take holidays off?”

What a ridiculous question. Of course he thought that people should get their holidays off. However, it felt like Yugi was leading him down a trap. For some reason, Yugi always knew exactly how to read Seto and trick him into agreeing to the weirdest things. Last time he had followed the rabbit hole down one of Yugi’s questions, he wound up agreeing to host a fundraising tournament for one of Yugi’s pet causes. Not the worst thing to have agreed to, but still annoying that it was only because Yugi had pushed for it. Still...he was curious where Yugi was going with this. “Of course,” Seto said, rather clipped. “It’s important for employee morale.”

“Then that means you should take the holidays off too,” Yugi said and instantly Seto regretted following along with Yugi’s question. Yugi was always badgering him to take more time off. “Since you agree that people should get the holidays off.”

“ _Yugi_...”

And then Yugi stood up on his tiptoes to press a quick kiss to Seto’s cheek. “Promise that those days off will be fun,” he teased and suddenly, Seto was somewhat looking forward to his newly found days off.


End file.
